Banele (109 day / 15.5 weeks) 01 00:12:22

Banele | Fathers, Awareness of Camera, Self-regulation, Feeding, Presence/absence, Communication, Pleasure, Gaze, Siblings

The whole family is at home. Banele is on mom’s lap with his siblings around him. Zanele, who has struggled with his presence often in previous filming, is giving Banele access to her lollipop sweet to lick – she expresses surprise at how much spit he puts onto it and mom tells her she did the same as a baby. The mood in the room is relaxed. Banele is strongly focused on the sweets as well as on his siblings. Mom glances up noticing dad’s presence and comments softly that dad won’t approve of the lollipop.

Banele vomits and mom comments that it is probably from the sweet. She begins to feed him some milk and he gazes up at her. Banele has hiccups and mom places a small piece of paper on his forehead (stuck on with her saliva). This is commonly thought to stop hiccups – a tradition passed down generationally.

Mom and dad have some light conversation with mom teasing that she knows what dad is up to and he shouldn’t trick her, as he changes into South African sporting clothes to go out to watch soccer.

Dad takes Banele from mom and sits with him on his chair for a while. The other children have become quieter and are mainly sitting on their couch.